Introduction
Every firm intends to make an effective marketing plan. The marketing plan helps the company to make lucrative marketing strategies. In the competitive market, the firm always needs the right market approach and implementation plan to create value for customers. Attraction and positioning are two marketing outcomes for a firm, which can also lead to competitive advantage.
The Company (BMW)
BMW is a German multinational company. This company produces and sells luxury vehicles for customers around the globe. It was founded in 1916. The firm is operating in Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Brazil, China, India, and the United States. Luxury motorcycles and automobiles are in the limelight due to their high quality and standard. BMW’s marketing strategy is sufficient to position a better in the minds of customers. It has grabbed customers and made them loyal and satisfied. According to 2017 financial reports, the revenue of the company is €98.678 billion
Importance of the Marketing Plan
BMW has identified the customer value, and accordingly, shaped the global marketing strategy. It focuses on the socioeconomic segments in different markets to sell cars. For Instance, cars are produced and marketed for premium customer segments (Yuying & Qingrun, 2018). Targeting customers, which contain positive perception of quality, luxury and performance, is a remarkable approach to make the brand more appealing in different competitive markets. BMW injected the innovative spirit in its marketing planning to satisfy the premium customers and demands. These are critical initiatives to increase customer attraction, sales, and competitive advantage over other automobile competitors in the global automobile market.
Macro effect on the company
Different marketing activities are in the limelight in developed countries. In an improved economy, the customer intends to spend the disposable income to buy BMW cars. The income level of people is high in these countries, and therefore, they make confident buying decisions. BMW customers perceive the quality and standard in the company’s way. The company shapes the marketing plans accordingly.
Impact on product and the ROI
In the competitive market, BMW has come up with different product lines. Depending on the needs of customers, the firm initiates the development process. A pertinent vehicle makes the brand more appealing, and it increases sales. Ultimately, it creates a return on investment. Marketing investments of BMW enable the highest return on the automobile market. For Instance, the content or message strategy triggers several features such as aesthetically appealing, refined engineering, reliability and high-quality services (Chamat, 2016). It makes the company keep improving vehicles with time and increases ROI.
Situation analysis
Assessing the situation of the company and deriving the performance of marketing plan through SWOT analysis is a right approach. It includes strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats.
SWOT analysis
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Strengths
BMW is a renowned brand in the automobile industry, and it is the biggest strength. Innovative advertising campaigns of the company enhanced the positioning and attraction. The firm enjoys a remarkable return on investment. Customer interactions have helped the management to obtain feedback and needs. Accordingly, it emphasizes technological developments. Despite containing the luxury brand, the firm started operations in developing countries such as China and India.
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Weakness
Sometimes, technology becomes controversial. BMW has recalled 1.6 million cars due to airbag issues (Usatoday.Com, 2018). It puts the dent on the brand image and marketing campaign. However, the firm regained growth through continuous improvements. Due to a few strategic alliances, the marketing process has not been shared in different parts of the world.
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Opportunities
Marketing expansion is an excellent opportunity to increase sales. However, developing more customer segments to produce low-cost cars could be a good move. The product portfolio can be expanded along with more strategic alliances in the global automobile industry.
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Threats
New arrivals and existing brands are willing to offer low-cost cars to customers in markets. It seems a considerable danger for the company, as it can convert loyal customers. Shifting automobile industry towards electric car production and marketing is a key industry trend. So far, BMW is still behind as compared to other automakers.
Customer Satisfaction
BMW experiences customer satisfaction in this competitive landscape. BMW won the annual customer satisfaction survey in 2016 (Motoring.Com, 2016). The most significant cause regarding customer satisfaction was the driving experience of customers. In the marketing campaign, marketers intended to depict the differentiated driving experience. Customers are finding BMW cars, according to their expectations. BMW has become status symbols for customer segments. However, driving experience is not a single factor. Excellent after-sales services along with some key service standard measures have satisfied customers. It increased the positioning, word of mouth, and brand appeal. Therefore, the impact on customers, product, and return on investment seems obvious.
Conclusion
In the end, it is to conclude that BMW’s marketing plan created a positive impact on business performance. The most important thing is to integrate with the modern market and industry trends to be relevant and sustainable in the market. The firm demonstrated continuous improvements in marketing campaigns and increased the customer range. A better marketing plan and performance can facilitate the firm entering a new market and meet the needs of new customer segments. The situational analysis depicted some weaknesses and opportunities. BMW can consider these weaknesses and opportunities in the strategic marketing plan. Streamlining long and short marketing goals and objectives is a critical factor in making the whole marketing plan successful.
References
Chamat, R. (2016, July 1). The Secrets to BMW’s Marketing Success. https://www.8ways.ch/en/digital-news/secrets-bmws-marketing-success
Motoring.Com. (2016, January 9). BMW snares top gong for customer satisfaction. https://www.motoring.com.au/bmw-snares-top-gong-for-customer-satisfaction-100823/
Usatoday.Com. (2018, October 23). BMW expands recall to 1.6 million vehicles worldwide over fire risk. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money
/nation-now/2018/10/23/bmw-recall-fire-diesel-vehicles/1736962002/
Yuying, & Qingrun. (2018, May 14). Global marketing strategy of BMW. https://globalmarketingprofessor.com/global-marketing-strategy-of-bmw/
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